Back in the recent thread scoping out "Frogs" and "Day of the Animals" somebody wished for a movie about man-eating froggies--and it didn't even click. I need more sleep.

I was in Japan for a few days last month, and while rummaging through a video rental store there, I saw a video box that suggested just that: man-eatin' froggies. It's possible it was just a reissue of the original "Frogs"--it had the famous image of the frog with the human hand sticking out of its yap; however, the hand had been removed and the frog's mouth was filled with razor-sharp teeth. Now I wish I'd taken a closer look at the box. (Next to it was "Rats," which WAS a reissue of "Rats: Night of Terror." So it's hard to say.)

Countries seriously screw with the titles of foreign releases: in Japan, several unrelated "Satan" movies ("The Church," "The Sect," etc.) were retitled as sequels to "Demons" and those two idiot "Shark Attack" movies had "Jaws" written into their Japanese titles.

I also saw what appeared to be a ripoff of the US "Godzilla" from Europe. The man-in-a-suit monster was clearly inspired by the big-jawed American nuclear iguana, but the box art gave no true idea of its scale. The Japanese title was "Reptilian"--and it all came back to me tonight as I watch "Reptilicus," even now, on AMC. My skin crawls.

You might be surprised how many movies never get released in the US--even those made for US audiences. Al Pyun's "Captain America" sat on the shelf for years before making it to US cable, but was available overseas during that time. Hopefully, the new version/reissue of "Frogs" and this "Reptilian" will finally make it here to fill us with sickness, hatred, and loathing.

I saw "Pulgasari" tonight as well--a North Korean giant-monsta flick made back in the mid-to-late Eighties unreleased in the US until now. It's...it's...well, it's better than "Reptilicus" (Peterson's doing his "electric eel dance" right now, blagh), but not by much. The acting is amazingly atrocious. Fun to watch at least once. (Amazing how readily people take to a violent giant monster that eats all their tools and weapons. Can no one think five minutes ahead?)